Mushroom and Leek Galettes (and Special Dinner)

There was no snack this Tuesday, instead we had our Special Dinner! In the co-ops it's tradition to end the semester with an extra special dinner to celebrate our time together. We spend way more money than we should on fancy ingredients, and cook way more hours than anyone thought was possible. Then at the end of the day we feast and drink to our hearts content. This semester the theme was 1950's Murder Mystery Dinner Party. It was the best special dinner yet, it was planned so perfectly and I couldn't believe all of the effort everyone put in to make the night memorable.

I decided to make Mushroom and Leek Galettes because I love galettes and wish I could eat them every single day. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. The mushrooms and leeks worked really well together and I could talk for days about how much I love this crust. It is so easy to work with and somehow turns into a magic flaky perfection. Deb Perlman is a "pie" crust genius. I made 6 galettes for the 6 main tables, and it was plenty of food because we had so much other delicious food. I was so full by the end of the night.

              

  The evening started at 5:30 with a cocktail hour and appetizers including fresh oysters and bruschetta. Then it was dinner time. The tables were set beautifully and all the food was already plated. We sat down, made a quick toast to Thea, Sasha, Monika and Meg for all of their amazing hard work and dove into the delicious-ness. There were spring rolls, mussels, cioppino, duck, truffle mac and cheese (!!), butter dumplings, sushi, paella, pomegranate and walnut chicken, flank steak, tamales, veggie lumpia and ceviche. They all (well at least the vegetarian ones) tasted amazing. So many different flavors, but I appreciated each of them in their own way. Then there was dessert. I could not fit anymore food in my body but I made it work and enjoyed pavlova, truffles, frozen peach torte, berry cream pie, ice cream sandwiches, and beignets. Only a tiny bite of each of course. :] My taste buds were definitely satisfied.

The meal ended with a murder! Mr. Black stumbled into the room, bloody, and fell to the ground. It was very dramatic, but so fun to watch. We broke off into teams and went through 7 challenges together to get clues to figure out who the murderer was. My team was rambunctious but so entertaining, we weren't very good at the challenges but we still got the clues and at the end of the night we guessed the murderer right! It was Ms. Scarlett. Typical. My housemates played 7 different clue characters, and they pulled it off so well. We have some great actors here. After all the challenges we reconvened and arrested Ms. Scarlett then danced the night away. I had so much fun. Definitely one of the best nights of my college years. I am going to be so sad when I have to move out in a couple weeks. This house has definitely become a home and the people I live with are like family. 

Tres Magnifique

The recipe for the crust is here: Galette Crust

And I used this recipe as a vague guideline for the filling: Mushroom and Leek Galette